Thursday, June 1, 2023

2011 Chevy Equinox One Year Repair history.

Well it has almost been a year since I purchased the Chevy Equinox.  It has been an expensive year at that!  I cannot remember what some of the prices were so I guessed what they might have been.

First year repairs:

Starter                                 ~$200 (Replaced it myself)
Water Pump                        $700
VVT Valves                        ~$200
HP Fuel Pump (Twice)       ~$300 (Had striped bolts, needed helicoils installed)
Alternator                           ~$500
Front Brakes                       ~$500
Wheel Bearing                    $375
Throttle Body                     $100 (Did not help anything)
Oil Pump                            $450 (Lost oil pressure when idleing when hot)
               Approx Total:      $3325

Still needed:

Rear Brakes $400
Front tires    $500

The problem is that the high pressure fuel pump puts a load on the cam shaft that puts a load on the cam shaft actutor, then the timing chain, then the timing chain guides and tensioner then the oil pump.  On top of that direct injection does not clean the intake valves that get covered in burnt oil from the PCV valve. On top of that it takes a quart of oil every 1,000 miles because of low tension piston rings that do not clean up all the oil so it gets burnt onto the rings thus cakeing them in burnt oil.

At one point the car would go into limp mode and shut down every mile or two.  I really struggled to get it back home.  It turns out that the HP Fuel pump had broken, the spring was completely detached, and it was pumping gas into the oil as well as leaking gas on the motor front.  One of the pump mounting bolts had broken in half!!

BTW, this is how to fix an Equinox that will not start (that still has dash lights), just unplug the circled connector on the computer and then plug it back in (This also erases all problem codes):



Since I wrote this it developed another issue.  It would stall sometimes when you stop and sometimes when you almost stop to make a turn.  Then it went into limp mode and would not leave first gear.  So I added some Lucas transmission fix and it has not stalled since then.  It does still sometimes have a rough shift down so I think it needs to have the transmission fluid changed.


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